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Stats back WA prison officers' complaints

Official figures back up long-held complaints that Western Australia's jails are overflowing, the state's Prison Officers Union says.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show WA has the nation's second-highest per capita rate of imprisonment at 267 per 100,000 people.

The Prisoners in Australia report, released on Thursday, has the national average at 168 prisoners per 100,000 adults in jail.

Union secretary John Welch highlighted another statistic in the report - a 7 per cent rise in WA's prison population in the past year.

Mr Welch said these figures supported the union's claim the state's prison system was nearing crisis.

"At a time when the Barnett government is cutting the budget of the Department of Corrective Services, we are seeing significant rises in the prison population put greater strain on WA's jails," he said.

"Prison officers are calling for new prison facilities to deal with the chronic overcrowding, proper staffing levels and better pay and conditions."

The report also showed the Northern Territory had by far the highest per capita of population rate of imprisonment - with 826 per 100,000 adults incarcerated.

But the most notable aspect of the document was a surge in the number of women in Australia's prisons in the past 10 years - an increase of 8.4 per cent over the past 12 months, and by 48 per cent since 2002.

This compares to a 0.4 per cent increase in the number of male prisoners over the past 12 months and a 29 per cent rise in the past decade.

The most common offences committed by women were illicit drug offences (17 per cent) and acts intended to cause injury (14 per cent).

Men were most commonly jailed for acts intended to cause injury and sexual assault.

As of June 30, there were 29,383 people behind bars in Australia, up 1 per cent since 2011 and up 31 per cent since 2002.

Fiona Dowsley, the ABS director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics, said females now made up 7 per cent of Australia's total prisoner population.